THE hypocrisy of the Tories, like the love of God, passeth all understanding.

In New Forest East the Lib Dems adopt a candidate who lives ten miles away, in West End, and a local Tory rushes into print to denounce the Lib Dems for not adopting a candidate who already lives in the constituency.

Then another similar spokesman urges everyone in Southampton Itchen to vote for the Tory at the next election because he was born in the constituency and has always lived and worked there. “He knows Itchen!” he proclaims.

Maybe, but does he know anything else?

On the very day this second letter appeared, so too was the announcement by the Tories of their next candidate to stand in Eastleigh. A local? Not on your life. She lives in Sussex, which as every true-born Hampshire Hog knows makes her a ‘furriner’. She might just as well come from the other side of the moon.

To be consistent with their preference for candidates who already live in their constituency, next year I predict that all the Tories in Eastleigh will be voting for Mike Thornton, the Lib Dem, because he’s lived in Eastleigh for over 20 years and is ‘the local man’.

If the Tories themselves say that this is the overriding qualification, how can anyone doubt for a moment that in Eastleigh they’ll put aside their political opinions and vote for the Lib Dem candidate because he’s ‘local’?

MARTIN KYRLE, address supplied.